Pests to eat more crops in warmer world

Insects will be at the heart of worldwide crop losses as the climate warms up, predicts a US study. Wheat, a crop typically grown in cool climates, could be hit hard, say the authors — Photo: KEITH EWING / CC BY 2.0 Scientists estimate the pests will be eating 10-25% more wheat, rice and maize across the globe for each one degree rise in climate temperature. Warming drives insect energy use and prompts them to eat more. Their populations can also increase. This is bound to put pressure on the world’s leading cereal crops, says study co-author Curtis Deutsch. “Insect pests currently consume the equivalent of one out of every 12 loaves of bread (before they ever get made). By the end of this century, if climate change continues unabated, insects will be eating more than two loaves of every 12 that could have been made,” the University of Washington, US, researcher told BBC News. What does the study show? Prof Deutsch, Joshua Tewksbury and colleagues have conducted a study on a global scale and looked at three different grain crops that are staple foods for billions of people. The study, in the journal Science, uses data from across the globe to make a mathematical prediction that links the response of insects to temperature with the damage that is done to crops when the climate warms up. Guy Poppy, who is Professor of Ecology at University of Southampton, UK, and works on food security said: “It is a novel piecing… [Read full story]